Hymns and the like...

So today I went to a convo (little like hour seminars required for Belmont students to attend... we need a certain number to graduate... just in case you didn't know) that Kevin (leader of Belmont RUF) put on about why we need hymns.

It was a really great talk. I've always loved hymns growing up in a mostly traditional style serve, but sure thought the music was out of date. When I started attending the contemporary service at the church, the music got better, but the words were not a deep. I absolutely loved when we started singing some of the newly re-arranged hymns in that service such as Amazing Grace- My Chains are Gone.

One reason I like RUF so much is because of their incorporation of hymns in a fresh new way.

When I first came to Belmont I think my attitude was a lot like that of the generation before me, that Kevin described. I have always been weary of tradition, especially within the church. Many just become habit with no thought or reverence behind it. Such is a hindrance to faith and true worship in my opinion. Still, I was very weary of many contemporary evangelical movements. While I don't think that coffee shop style churches or mega-church style churches are wrong, when church stops looking like church it is a problem for me.

This is also something we have talked about in RUF. At lot of churches have watered down their services or converted them into mega-entertainment in an effort to catch people's attention and relate to a secular audience. While they mean well, I agree with those who say that this approach distorts what the Christian life is all about. Worship shouldn't be this purely emotional experience that acts like some kind of pep-rally to keep you fire up for Christ. The fact of the matter is that your just not gonna feel that way all the time. Its incredibly discouraging to think that to be a Christian you should feel that way all the time. People question, tire, struggle. This is all part of the Christian life too. Jesus suffered and even struggled in the garden before his crucifixion. God's answer to evil and pain is to walk with us through the midst of our suffering and through that transform it into good. This needs to be reflected in the way we worship and sometimes that requires silence, or reverence and humility within music.

Instead of trying to make the church fit in more with the culture, we should be attempting to explain would counter culture better. Instead of saying that non CHristians wouldn't understand hymns or corporate prayers or something and therefore won't use them, we should make sharing their history and value a part of the service as well. Christianity is not all about what we feel and know now. There are thousands of Christians throughout the centuries that can help us with our journey. We are "dwarfs on the shoulders of giants". We may be able to see farther than those who came before us, but not without their help.

While there is a lot to be said about meeting people where they are. After all, hymns were once the contemporary music of their day. But that does not mean that the Church forgets it's call to be followers of Christ and seek righteousness to get more people to join. Tradition and innovation can work together to create a genuine representation of the church within a worship service.

While Hymns do an awesome job of exploring what the Christian walk is all about, they are not the only songs that accomplish this. During the convo I had a Tenth Avenue North song stuck in my head. I think that band does a great job of portraying all the aspects of Christian life in their album. Brandon Heath said in an interview that he thought that contemporary Christian music was looked down upon because it was shallow and unrealistic. Singing about how happy you are all the time does not reflect how people actually feel. Sometime people really don't feel like praising God. To then sing a song that says "I could sing of your love forever" or I could praise you forever really isn't helpful. Singing about pain or doubt is not really popular, yet it is so important to what being a Christian is really like. Times is the song by Tenth Avenue North that speaks of this and I just love it.

Times
I know i need you
I need to love you
I love to see you, and its been so long

I long to feel you
I feel this need for you
And I need to hear you
Is that so wrong?

Now you pull me near you
When we're close i fear you
Still I'm afraid to tell you
All that I've done

Are you done forgiving?
Or can you look pass my pretending?
Lord I'm so tired of defending
What I've become
What have i become?

I hear you say "My love is over,
It's underneath, it's inside, it's in between
The times you doubt me, when you can't feel
The times that you've questioned 'is this for real?'
The times you've broken, the times that you mend
The times you hate me and the times that you bend
Well my love is over, its underneath
It's inside, its in between,

These times you're healing
And when your heart breaks
The times that you feel like you've fallen from grace
The times you're hurting
The times that you heal
The times you go hungry and attempted to steal

In times of confusion and chaos and pain
I'm there in your sorrow under the weight of your shame
I'm there through your heartache
I'm there in the storm
My love I will keep you by my power alone
I don't care where you've fallen, where you have been
I'll never forsake you
My love never ends, it never ends

Another great one is Hold mY Heart which starts out:

"How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will You turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart"

There are a number of great worship songs out there that are both contemporary and representative of the Christian walk. I think as long as the focus is upon God and what he has done, incorporated with the scriptures... a song should be pretty good as a tool for understanding Christ as the worship experience.

that probibly made little sense and was all over the place... but hey just thought i would write down my thought...haven't done that for a while...